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RA SP/ADD/1/158
1676–87
Account book for works at Windsor Castle, 1676–87
RA SP/ADD/1/158 (view an extract from the document)
In 1675 the architect Hugh May began a radical remodelling of Windsor Castle for Charles II (r. 1660–85).
Charles Wild (1781-1835), 'Queen Anne's Bed', Windsor Castle, RCIN 922108©
The interiors were decorated in the fashionable Baroque style, and the Italian artist Antonio Verrio was commissioned to paint the ceilings of some twenty rooms that today form the State Apartments.
Payments to the craftsmen involved are recorded in this account book, open here to show a payment of £250 to Verrio for the ceiling in the King’s Dining – or ‘Eating’ – Room, painted with a scene showing the Feast of the Gods, one of only three of Verrio's ceilings to survive.
This can be seen here in Charles Wild's (1781-1835) watercolour from the Royal Collection.
